Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, you can watch the first three seasons of Blackadder in their entirety

The BBC has launched the international version of its iPlayer app for the iPad. The app, which lets users stream and download the Beeb’s TV shows, is free and available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

The app differs from the local, UK-only version quite significantly. The UK iPlayer service is intended as a way to catch up on shows from the past week, and all content is free for its short life on the service. The international iPlayer works more like Hulu. There is a significant back catalog of around 1,000 hours stretching back 60 years — currently featured are vintage episodes of Doctor Who starring William Hartnell. The iPlayer also contains non-BBC content. The excellent Misfits from Channel 4 is in there, for example.

Also new are streaming over 3G and offline viewing. The latter lets you download and keep episodes to watch later — perfect for vacations or plane rides.

Some content is free, and you can grab the app and try it out right now. For the meat of the service, though, you’ll have to pay. A monthly subscription costs €7 ($10) and a yearly one €50 ($71). This is very cheap compared to the compulsory television License Fee payable by every TV owner in Britain, currently £145.50, or $238, or €166. Subscriptions are paid for in-app, just like any other iTunes purchase.

So how is the app itself? Not bad. The experience is slick, and navigation is fast. You can browse or search for shows. Each episode has a plot summary, where you can hit play, download the show or — inevitably — recommend it via Twitter or Facebook.

Streaming starts pretty much immediately (you get a bandwidth warning first if you aren’t connected to a Wi-Fi network), and the quality isn’t bad. It’s not as good as a torrented file ripped from the hi-def version, but its good enough for the small screen.

Two major faults stand out. The first is a lack of subtitle support, which is absurd in an app showing English language shows to foreign audiences. For example The Lady, who speaks perfect English, is sometimes foxed by the weirder English accents on TV.

The second is a lack of AirPlay support, even for audio. This is thanks to the app’s custom video player. You can always hook up the iPad to a TV or stereo using a cable, though.

The iPlayer app is pretty great, and fills the gap for smug Europeans left by Spotify launching in the U.S. And best of all, unlike the paid version of Hulu, there are no ads (you do get some pre-roll commercials in the free version).

iPlayer iPad app [iTunes via the Guardian]

Ultra-portables like the 2011 MacBook Air shun bulky features like an optical drive in favor of a sleek frame. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

Our notebooks, ultrabooks and desktop PCs are all getting thinner — thin enough that Kate Moss in her heroin-chic heyday could have sported something like the 13-inch MacBook Air down the runway and it wouldn’t have overwhelmed her almost nonexistent frame.

It’s no surprise. We’ve been seeing computers slim down ever since those giant room-sized computers that spawned the digital age, and the introduction of the first PCs in the decades that followed.

But for a while, we were continually adding features such as hard drive space, optical drives, SD card slots to our notebooks and PCs. Now, as storage migrates toward online servers, and media is more likely to be streamed rather than viewed from a DVD or Blu-ray disc, many of those onboard features are shrinking down, or getting nixed altogether.

Consumers are favoring size and portability over a heftier ‘do-it-all’ type machine.

“Size will most certainly be an important driver when consumers look for their next PC or notebook,” especially with tablets at the forefront of consumers’ minds todays, says Desiree Davis, Senior Manager with Resolve Market Research.

The skinny: In recent years, we’ve been seeing ultra-portable notebooks like Apple’s MacBook Airs ditch the optical drive so they can achieve a slim silhouette. The Mac Mini desktop also lost the optical drive in its latest iteration. And now, both MacRumors and TUAW are reporting that Apple is working on ultra-thin 15- and 17-inch notebooks as well, likely to fall under the MacBook Pro umbrella and hit the market around the holiday season. If this is true (and it definitely seems in line with Apple’s current product trends and general philosophy) and they’re as thin as the Airs, they likely won’t have an optical drive either.

We’re also seeing PCs begin to favor flash storage, typically in the form of SSDs that incorporate NAND-based flash memory, rather than thicker, weightier HDDs.

“There are simply fewer devices on the market that consumers want to carry that have room for hard disk drives. Their value to the on-the-go consumer is simply nonexistent,” says Davis.

Although SSDs are currently more expensive than comparable capacity HDDs, they offer more benefits than just their smaller form factor: they are quieter, less vulnerable to physical shock, have less latency, and quicker access time. We’re probably going to see them become more and more prevalent in notebooks and PCs.

The materials used to create modern computers and laptops also lends itself towards thinner design, especially in Apple’s case.

“The aluminum unibody structures of the new MacBooks (whether Air or non-Air) are significantly stronger than what manufacturers could make out of plastic. So Apple is able to create a super-thin product while still preserving the strength of a plastic counterpart,” Miroslav Djuric of iFixit.

Cloud storage is another factor that will allow computers to shed some pounds. There are a variety of cloud storage solutions that customers can use instead of loading up on files on their actual gadget.

With our music, photos, and documents fed into the cloud, the need for onboard storage becomes increasingly irrelevant and unnecessary. Google’s Chromebook, which takes that to the extreme, eliminates almost everything but your ability to connect to the Internet. Although a device like that isn’t quite ready for the mainstream yet, it’s clear that’s the direction we’re headed.

But is a thin computer always a good thing?

“The best way to have thin devices is to integrate as many components as possible on one single board,” says Djuric. “That really keeps the thickness as minimal as possible, but also affects the upgradeability, repairability, and features of the device.”

“These thinner devices also make for excellent throw-way devices,” Djuric added. That means consumers are more likely to toss it out when it gets old, rather than trying to fix or upgrade it. This could lead to environmental problems in the future, as these products build up in landfills, he said.

See Also:

• New Galaxy Tab 10.1 Thinner, Lighter Than iPad 2
• iPad 2 Glass Is Thinner But Stronger Than Original iPad’s
• Amazon to Launch Thinner, Sharper, Faster Kindle in August …
• ThinkPad Proves Big Things Come in Small Packages

Samsung's first Galaxy S smartphone was the company's most successful Android device. Until, that is, the release of the Galaxy S2. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Samsung has its sights on being the king of all things Android.

The company announced Wednesday that its Galaxy S 2 smartphone reached record sales numbers for the company, with more than 5 million handsets sold in the first three months since the smartphone’s debut. And that number accounts for only a quarter of the company’s total smartphone sales over the past three months.

“[Samsung is] claiming that they shipped 19 million smartphones in the second quarter,” IDC mobile analyst Al Hilwa told Wired.com in a statement. “That is a great number of devices, and assuming that most of them are Android phones, then it is a feat for Android.”

The numbers are only going up from here. Thus far, the Galaxy S2’s release has been limited to South Korea (where Samsung’s global HQ is located), parts of southeast Asia and a handful of European countries. The phone’s U.S. release is slated for some time in August, according to Samsung president of mobile business and digital imaging Shin Jong-kyun. The news was first reported by Korean news agency Yonhap.

“In just a few months the Galaxy S II has led the way in driving Samsung’s unmatched performance in the smartphone industry” Shin said in a statement. “This reflects the strong support from carrier partners globally, who in choosing the Galaxy S II as their flagship device have reaffirmed the device’s status as a premium, market-defining Smartphone.”

A little perspective: Samsung’s first highly popular smartphone, the Galaxy S, hit the five million mark at around four months, with the lion’s share of those sales occurring in the United States. And after six months of global sales, the Galaxy S hit 10 million units sold.

Compare that to Motorola’s Droid One smartphone — once considered the most successful Android phone — which sold 1.05 million devices in the first 74 days of release. Since its first major successful Android phone, Motorola has strived for another hit device. The Atrix– the smartphone-cum-laptop hybrid device which Motorola first introduced in January — looked to be the company’s next hit phone. But high prices for the accompanying peripheral hardware that made the phone unique deterred customers, keeping the Atrix from gaining any significant following.

“Device makers have always craved being platform owners,” Hilwa told Wired.com, “which is why they end up developing as much software and tinkering with the UI’s, so that they can move up the food chain.”

And that’s exactly what Samsung is doing. The company plans to unveil a major revamp of its TouchWiz user interface at an event in New York next week. It’s a timely release, considering Apple’s iOS 5 revamp announcement just over a month ago.

Aside from competing for customers with rival Android manufacturers, Samsung is fighting battles on other fronts. Apple is currently suing Samsung in a bitter ongoing patent dispute, claiming the South Korean company is ripping off Apple’s product designs. Samsung quickly filed countersuits against Apple, claiming Apple was encroaching on Samsung’s intellectual property by using a method to improve connections between cell phones and cellular towers.

Samsung’s battles with Apple extend outside of the courtroom, of course. When measured against Apple’s iPhone sales, Samsung’s numbers pale in comparison. Apple sold over 20 million iPhone 4 smartphones in the past three months alone, according to the Cupertino-based company’s last earnings report. That’s over 100 million iPhones sold to date.

A straight apples-to-apples comparison (so to speak) is misleading. Samsung isn’t just competing against Apple and its iOS platform. As one of many manufacturers producing hardware running the same operating system, customers can choose between Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and others to get their Android fix. That’s not to mention the other competitors in the space like RIM, HP and Nokia, though the latter two admittedly have a negligible market share.

If Samsung continues to pull ahead of other Android devices in the pack, the company seems to be the only true competitor to Apple’s skyrocketing smartphone success. In the first quarter of 2011, Samsung accounted for 13 percent of all smartphones sold globally, up from just three percent during the same period of time the previous year. That’s more than any other Android manufacturer, according to IMS Research. It’s important to note that rival manufacturer HTC isn’t far behind, however: The Taiwan-based company is just three percent behind Samsung in market share, according to IMS.

There’s also competition on the tablet device front, where Samsung may be putting out some of the best hardware. DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira recently compared five of the leading tablet devices on the market — four of which were Android-based, with the last being the iPad 2. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 came out ahead, touting the best display out of all five devices, including Apple’s (though it should be noted that Soneira found Samsung’s colors oversaturated to a noticeable degree).

The devices themselves, however, are just one part of the overall package. “Samsung has done a great job on making compelling hardware, the look, feel and capabilities,” Gartner mobile analyst Phillip Redman told Wired.com in an interview. “But the total ecosystem is not in its hands like it is Apple’s. It really isn’t just about the hardware. That’s important—but it’s the ecosystem that includes the OS, the application stores, the developers, content—all of that that will make something successful.”

Apple certainly has a leg up on its competitors in the overall ecosystem. The company has approved over half a million apps for its App Store as of May, double the amount currently found on the Android Market. And of course, Apple owns its software, hardware and retail stores. The company also keeps strict control over its app ecosystem, with final say on what is and isn’t acceptable for its store.

So even if Samsung can corner the Android landscape, can it stand up to Apple, a company which seems to have the entire package going for it?

“Samsung and Motorola Mobility will be great competitors to Apple,” Redman says, “but they aren’t of the same leadership caliber, position and vision.”

Kobo hopes that a web app will help it skirt Apple’s App Store rules

E-book and e-reader seller Kobo is planning an HTML5 web app to bypass Apple’s latest restrictions on its iOS devices. In the last few days, Kobo’s iOS app, along with Amazon’s Kindle app and Barnes & Noble’s Nook app have all been forced to remove links to their online e-book stores.

This is in response to Apple’s rule which bans apps from allowing access to retail channels other than its own in-app purchase option, of which Apple takes a 30% cut.

The rule makes things worse for users. You or I might know that we can go to the Kobo, Amazon or B&N websites to buy new books, and that they will then show up in their respective apps. But e-books are a market also popular with regular people, and they need all the tech-help they can get.

Kobo’s response is to make a web-based e-reader app available. This will run in a browser (or a browser-powered view) and is therefore exempt from any App Store restrictions. It will also run in any HTML5-compatible browser, not just Safari on iOS.

It seems like a great solution, but for one thing. Nobody but nerds install web-apps. Auntie May is going to get her Kobo reader from one place — the App Store. And us nerds won’t bother either, as we’re the ones who already know how to buy books from our browsers.

Web apps are great for Apple. They’re a way for the company to excuse its restrictive App Store terms. But web apps will never be as popular as native ones, and Apple knows it.

Kobo Developing HTML5 eReading Web App to Serve iOS Users [Press release / Reuters]

Changes from Apple affects Kobo’s iPhone/iPad App [Kobo]

See Also:

• Kobo International E-Book Store Launches: Why Amazon Should Be …
• Kobo Beats iBooks with International iPad Bookstore, App
• Sidestepping Apple: From Amazon to Condé Nast, Companies Rethink …

With competition like the Samsung Galaxy S II showing us just how thin a phone can be, the iPhone 4 isn’t quite looking as svelte as it once did. How’s an Apple-loving gadget fiend supposed to stay faithful in a time like this? Why, by holding their handset next to something much, much thicker. Enter the “iPhone 4,” which actually isn’t a phone, rather a powered fan that serves to keep you cool, not connected. As you can see after the break, the Home button won’t kick you out of an app, instead kicking that ducted air-mover into high gear, and while you won’t find it in your local Apple Store, stumble across one of these plastic bricks in Shenzhen and it’ll only cost you $10 or so to take it home. Small price to keep your handset feeling good about itself — until September, anyway.

Update: Jasper wrote in with a link of where you can buy one for yourself, if you’re still suffering from a heat wave.

[Thanks, Chris]

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake: the iPhone 4 has a fan in China (video)

Keepin’ it real fake: the iPhone 4 has a fan in China (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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